In His Shadow
by sasaide
Summary: Through the thoughts of Naruto, Kakshi, Sasuke, Sakura and Itachi, we learn of the five's painthough some of them have a different kind of pain to the others'. Why did Sakura leave them? don't like to disclose so much but read! pretty sure it's appealing


**Naruto**

It's been a long while already, but still it's hard for everyone to accept that he's here. At first I was shocked beyond belief. How could he? All the ninjas in Konoha would be on his trail, and how could he have the nerve to come back? Committing the crimes he has detaches you so much from the village. But then I remembered that he has a hostage-Wait, that isn't the right term for it, more like a willing prisoner. Even I don't know how or why she did it. One day she was waving goodbye to me after training, and the next I see her through his window. In one day her eyes had lost that gleam, her hair that shine, and her features looked dull. How could she? How could she do this to us? And why?

Now Itachi has the ultimate defence-

No one will harm him, or attempt to do so while he has Sakura Haruno in his clutches.

**Kakashi**

I remember the first day I met them all. They were all naïve little things, and I didn't even like them one bit. There was one loud-mouth, over active immature kid who shouldn't have even passed the Genin exam, one love-sick girl with her thoughts full of a psychologically traumatised and mentally isolated genius, and lo and behold, he was in my team too. But they've changed. The loudmouth, over active immature is always one step closer every day to his dream of Hokage; the psychologically traumatised and mentally isolated genius is no longer traumatised but now more sensibly focused on his goal-though the goal itself maybe deemed crazy. He isn't isolated either, because now he and the loudmouth are best friends. Who would have thought that Uzumaki Naruto, the symbol of the Kyuubi, and Sasuke Uchiha, a reminder of the Uchiha massacre, would join forces? And even the lovesick girl has grown, training to be one of the best medic-nin second only to Tsunade, in fact, I think that she has grown the most, because she discovered a great sacrifice, understood that if she was going to get what she wanted, she would have to sacrifice-

Herself.

**Sasuke**

At the beginning, I thought she was weak. She was just another irritating fan girl to be ignored. But I saw her change. I saw her grow. And my initial impression of her began to fade. She wasn't a fan girl anymore, but a young woman. And I thought she understood. She talked like she did. When I left, she even begged to go, even if only a mere servant. I thought she understood that I would never be able to move on until he was out of my life.

I thought she would wait.

But she didn't wait, she didn't wait for me to finish my business. And now my opinion of her now returns to it's first-weak. She thought she could not be with me, and so began searching for the closest thing-**him**. He doesn't love her. He only keeps her because he knows the torture his worse than the Mangekyo Sharingan. He knows I love her-but how can she not? But then again, her blindness isn't that even Tsunade can cure. He doesn't love her. He doesn't. I see the bruises and marks on her face, the few times she does come out of his house. She looks untidy, and there is a smell of dried blood on her dress. It was amazing how much she loved me. Even after all that. And just like that, because of him, she can suddenly change? I loved-no, love her. And even I, a child prodigy, cannot understand why she is with him.

He is not me, and I will never be him.

So why did she choose Itachi?

**Sakura**

It took me forever to find him. In the end, out of pure desperateness (and I feel terrible about this), I extracted a small, but powerful part of the Kyuubi's chakra with a technique I developed, and spread it around a forest on the outskirts of Konoha.

And Naruto thought the three weeks he spent in hospital was from the fatigue of the Rasengan training.

Akatsuki immediately detected the power and Itachi and Kisame were there in mere hours. When they saw me, Kisame wanted to kill me off, but only because he was frustrated that it was a false alarm. Itachi stopped him, and I saw a gleam in his blood-red eyes. He was thinking what I was thinking, but not for the same reasons.

He just wanted a toy, and a toy that could hurt Sasuke was even better.

He didn't handle me roughly or anything on the trip back. But the silence was painstaking. When we reached his section of the lair, he laid down ground-rules. And I laid out my bargain. This is why he never goes after Sasuke, he never touches Sasuke, or harms Konoha, or even tries to harm Naruto. He said he had to follow orders, but he would find a way to extract the nine-tails without killing Naruto. This is Itachi keeping his end of the bargain. All I have to do is sit around, and wait for him to come back.

I don't know. I can't believe he so easily agreed to it. I didn't have much to offer. But he agreed, and that's all I have to worry about. He hits me sometimes. Maybe this is what he gains from the contract, I have no idea. We're not officially wedded, nor have we made love, but the fact that we are together, living together, _existing_ together is all the pain Naruto, Kakashi-sensei, and Sasuke can take.

Oh Sasuke.

Sasuke, can't you see?

I did this for you.

One day, when I have something big to offer, I will give it to Itachi, and then you can kill him.

Sasuke, I did it because I love you.

**Itachi**

They think I am a monster. No one says it though, and they don't even dare show it in their eyes. But I feel it in their aura. She must have been a great jewel to Konoha, and now I have her, in their eyes. They think I play and use her like garbage, like she's some sort of toy I can play with when I am bored. They see the bruises on her. The blood and the broken bones. They see that she herself is broken. I don't care. I am a monster. I killed my own family. Except for Sasuke-but that is because I knew, I knew deep down, that traumatising Sasuke would be worse than death for him. And he was so young. So very young.

Everyone thinks that Sakura was desperate for Sasuke, that because she couldn't have him, she would find the nearest thing-her brother. She sold herself to someone that doesn't even care. She is a weakling in their eyes, yet they still love her.

But she doesn't love me. That is why I hit her. How can she love him? My brother, a mere weakling compared to me. But she pines after him; I can see it. Everyday she looks out of that window, and her eyes grow wistful-and I know she is thinking of him. Why? I am the stronger one; I would never have deserted her. I think sometimes this is what Sasuke went through. But I'll never understand. She loves him, but she stays with me. Why? Just to protect him? It was clever of her, but why sacrifice herself like that? So I hit her-because I don't understand her; I am frustrated at her, and frustrated that she loves him and not me.

I, Itachi Uchiha, love her.

But.

She has placed me forever in my brother's lingering shadow.

**A/N-I hope you understand what's going on! Because everyone has different ideas! It just came to me! . If it's unclear I'll edit it…**


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